Toronto's Trump tower could get new name: sources

Alastair Sharp, Allison Lampert

3 Min Read

The top of the 65-storey Trump International Hotel & Tower is seen in Toronto August 31, 2015. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters) - Marriott International Inc’s St. Regis brand is the lead bidder to take over the brand and management rights of a downtown Toronto high-rise bearing the name of U.S. President Donald Trump, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

A third source said the Trump Organization already has agreed to a settlement that will see it walk away from its branding and management deal for the 65-story hotel and condo tower in the financial district of Canada’s largest city.

It could still take four to six weeks to close the deal to rebrand the Trump International Hotel & Tower, one of the sources said, while another said it could close in two weeks.

“There are a number of hotel groups circling for the management,” said one of the sources.

The sources, who declined to say how much the deals were worth, spoke on condition of anonymity because the privately held talks are confidential.

Trump, whose business connections were the subject of two lawsuits filed by members of Congress and Maryland and District of Columbia officials this week, has never owned the project. The building was developed by Talon International Inc, which later defaulted on a construction loan, and the property was bought in a court-run sale by JCF Capital ULC earlier this year.

That sale included 211 hotel units, 74 residential units and most of the commercial, retail and amenity space in the property.

Representatives of the Trump Organization have previously said they would resist any efforts to cut short the company’s long-term contract. Trump Organization representatives were not immediately available for comment on Friday.

Since its opening in 2012, Talon had sold less than half of the tower’s residential condos and the hotel’s occupancy rates have been lower than some investors in the rooms had hoped.

A court last year ordered Talon to pay damages to one buyer of a unit in the tower for “negligent misrepresentation” and another sale was ordered rescinded.

A partner with JCF Capital could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday but declined to comment earlier this week when asked about rebranding the hotel.

Trump had been pressed to distance himself from his global business before becoming president in January. He said he would maintain ownership while turning over control to his two adult sons.

Critics said he still would have conflicts of interests under that arrangement and this week more than 190 Democratic lawmakers sued him, saying he had accepted funds from foreign governments through his businesses in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia also filed a lawsuit this week claiming that government payments to Trump’s businesses violate the Constitution.

Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Bill Trott